Former US heavyweight boxer George Foreman is dead. He died peacefully on Friday (local time) in his family, as his relatives announced on Instagram. He was 76 old. “Our hearts are broken,” it said in the message. “As a creditor preacher, devoted husband, loving father and proud grandfather and great-grandfather, his life was shaped by steadfast belief, humility and determination.”
Foreman was highly respected as a “philanthropist, Olympic participant and twice world champion in heavyweight. His family described him as “a power of good” and “man with discipline and conviction”. The family thanked for sympathy and prayers and asked for peace, “while we appreciate the extraordinary life of a man that we were allowed to call our own.”
Foreman had one of the longest careers in the history of boxing, which he only ended in 1997. After the gold medal at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, he became WBC and WBA world champions from 1973 to 1974. However, his most important fight ended in a co-defeat against Muhammad Ali on October 30, 1974 in Kinshasa, a struggle that went down in boxing history as a “Rumble in the Jungle”.
In 1977, at the age of 28, he declared his career after a co-defeat against Jimmy Young for the time being. Ten years later, he started a comeback and crowned himself in November 1994, 20 years after the battle against Ali, with a spectacular co-victory against Michael Moorer at the age of 45, the oldest heavyweight world champion in history.
Foreman defended the belt in 1995 with a highly controversial victory against Axel Schulz. In 1997 he finally ended his career.
